I was one of the millions of people who waited for hours in line to get a copy of Diablo III. I’m also one of the many people who are severely disappointed with how the game turned out. There may be hope for gamers wanting to try out the game’s upcoming PS3 and PS4 release though, because it has at least one advantage over the PC and MAC versions: offline multiplayer.

Strangely enough, Blizzard’s blog post and press release announcing the console port don’t make a big deal of this feature, which I’m sure is sorely missed by Diablo II players. The press release simply says, “Players will be able to battle their way through the story in single-player mode and also experience the hack-and-slash joy of destroying demons and collecting loot together with their friends via seamless four-player online and local co-op modes.” Blizzard Production Director John Hight did mention the same feature in an interview with GameTrailers’ Geoff Keighley (skip to 2:35 for the relevant part). Sadly Keighley did not press Blizzard whether or not the single-player mode will have an offline mode as well. I guess we’re going to know more later this March at PAX East, where the PS3 port of the game will be playable.

As someone who doesn’t have a high end – or even average-end – Internet connection, the always online requirement of Diablo III is one of my biggest complaints about the game. I wonder if Blizzard is considering making offline modes available across the board.

But the main reason I stopped playing Diablo III is its Auction House. For me, the appeal of Diablo is the chance of acquiring good loot. As it is, the game’s loop and immersion is broken for me. I hope – for the sake of the people who are going to buy the console versions of the game, I’m not going to be talked into buying this thing twice – that Diablo III on the PS3 and PS4 also gets rid of the Auction House and just hikes up drop rates for loot.

Comments (2):

You have good enough Internet connection to research, write and maintain this website but not enough to play an online game?

I will never understand all the hate for D3. Sure, it had some problems at launch, which in my opinion have mostly been resolved. The serious D2 players seem to complain the most, while in the same sentence touting how they played D2 for 11 years. But you won’t give D3 another chance after 8 months?

To answer your first question: yes, you are correct. The last time I played D3 was about a month or a couple of months ago. I still experienced rubber banding and lag. Not a lot of it that the game was unplayable, but it was there. It’s partly my ISP’s fault, sure, but still.

But as I said, the main reason I don’t play D3 anymore is because the game is built around the Auction House, and not the other way around. It would be one thing if the Auction House was there AND the loot and the drop rate were still decent, but nope. Once I stepped into Nightmare I realized how crappy my gear was.

This is a game where the only control players have over their classes is with the runes and passive skills. Otherwise your character is defined – both quantitatively and aesthetically – almost entirely by your items.

But instead of helping the players define their characters inside the game – through the old loop of adventure, get levels & loot, get stronger, adventure more – with D3 you’d be better off breaking whatever immersion you have in its world and going to this dissonant auction house, and you can get stronger there without spending as much time adventuring. But if I did that the game will only become even more pointless for me.

To make things worse, once you drop by the Auction House and you see all the awesome stuff for sale, all the drops you do get back in the game now look even worse in your eyes because you’ve seen what’s out there.

At this point I wouldn’t be that surprised if Blizzard turned off item drops completely and just gave players nothing but gold and sold all items through the Auction House.

Of course, the Auction House is also part of the reason why the game has to be online all the time – to prevent hackers and dupers and such. So there.

Then there’s the story-related cutscenes and dialogues that can’t be turned off and the numerous preset maps. In a game that’s meant to be played over and over again. You’d think that after making three of those Blizzard would have introduced an infinite and randomly generated dungeon for successive playthroughs.

I don’t really hate the game. After all, I did finish Normal with two classes (I know, I’m lame). And although I did play and loved D2 I’m not so blinded and naive to think that Blizzard wouldn’t or shouldn’t try new ideas with D3. I like the new characters, I like the graphics and the combat is great. But I’m not a huge fan of D3 either. It’s too restrictive for my taste.